THE CHALLENGE OF BLACK CONSCIOUSNESS TO THE APARTHEID STATE

Civil Resistance in South Africa: Black Consciousness Movement

Background

• Late 1960s: Resistance to apartheid declined due to government suppression.

• Key leaders (e.g., Nelson Mandela) were imprisoned; ANC and other groups were banned or exiled.

• Harsh crackdown led to a standstill in the struggle for equality.

• This created space for new ideas, leading to the emergence of the Black Consciousness Movement (BCM).

• The BCM, led by Steve Biko, responded to the failures of older resistance movements.

Overview of Black Consciousness

• Black Consciousness (BC) is a philosophy, not an organization.

• Introduced by Steve Biko in 1968.

• Proponents were not anti-white but advocated for blacks-only organizations, independent of white influence.

• They embraced "black" in defiance of the apartheid state's term "non-white," referring to Coloured and Indian people as well.

• BC advocated black self-respect and confidence to overcome white superiority and black inferiority mindsets.

• BC encouraged pride in black culture and history.

• Proponents wanted black people to nurture their black identity, not assimilate into white culture.

• The philosophy promoted black unity and liberation for all black people in South Africa.

• It aimed for 'a liberation of the mind', rather than being a traditional political movement or part of the armed struggle.

• The raised fist became the symbol of the Black Consciousness Movement.

The Role of Steve Biko

• Late 1960s: Biko was a medical student at the University of Natal (Pietermaritzburg campus) and a member of the Student Representative Council (SRC).

• Barney Pityana studied at the University of Fort Hare and led a branch of the University Christian Movement (UCM).

• Both were initially part of the multi-racial National Union of South African Students (NUSAS), which opposed apartheid but was white-dominated.

• They became disillusioned with NUSAS and established the South African Students Organisation (SASO) in 1968, a blacks-only student organization.

• Biko wanted black people to achieve economic, political, and social self-sufficiency, excluding white people from SASO.

• He emphasized black South Africans helping themselves to understand their worth and take pride in their achievements.

• Biko knew that white students had not experienced Bantu education or township life, giving them a limited understanding of black needs and problems.

• White students benefited from white privileges, facing different barriers than black people.

• Biko was elected as the first president of SASO in 1969.

• In 1970, when Pityana was elected president of SASO, Biko headed the publications department.

• He wrote a column "I write what I like” under the pen-name Frank Talk.

• SASO defined Black Consciousness as:

  • An attitude of mind, a way of life.

  • Rejecting value systems that make the Black man a foreigner in his own country and reduce his basic human dignity.

  • Building up his own value systems, seeing himself as self-defined and not defined by others

  • Awareness by the Black people of power they wield as a group, both economically and politically and hence group cohesion and solidarity are important facets.

Extracts from ‘I Write What I Like’ by Steve Biko

• The colour question in South African politics was deliberately introduced for economic reasons.

• White leaders created barriers between black and whites to maintain privileges at the expense of blacks.

• White people have come to believe in the inferiority of the black man, making the race problem a serious issue by itself.

Biko's Political Activity

• Biko and Pityana were expelled from their universities for political activity.

• Biko worked for the Black Community Programmes (BCP) in the Eastern Cape, focusing on education, health, and welfare.

• Biko was encouraged by the decolonization of Africa and international criticism of apartheid.

• He drew ideas from the Pan-Africanist movement, the Black Power Movement in the USA, and the global youth revolt in the late 1960s.

• Biko was influenced by Frantz Fanon, who believed violent uprisings were necessary for colonized people to overcome inferiority complexes.

• Biko broadcasted his views in meetings, gatherings, and rallies, particularly in the Eastern Cape townships.

• As a Christian, Biko urged South African churches to take a stand against apartheid.

• Biko contacted the ANC underground, even though he was not a member.

• The ANC wanted unity among liberation organizations and support from young people influenced by the Black Consciousness Movement.

• In 1973, the government banned Biko, restricting his movements and meetings.

• He often ignored his banning order to speak at meetings.

• In 1975, Biko secretly met with Sobukwe (PAC) and Harry Gwala (ANC and SACP) to discuss uniting black liberation organizations.

• Biko envisioned a socialist future, but prioritized black unity in the face of apartheid.

• The ANC recommended Biko and Pityana go into exile but Biko did not leave the country.

• The ANC attempted to facilitate meetings between Biko and ANC leaders in exile in 1976 and 1977, which were unsuccessful.

• Biko envisioned South Africa as a non-racial socialist society.

• Steve Biko: “In time, we shall be in a position to bestow on South Africa the greatest possible gift - a more human face.”

Biko's Death

• In 1977, Biko was arrested in the Eastern Cape for inciting unrest after meeting with activists in Cape Town.

• He was beaten by the South African security police in Port Elizabeth and driven to Pretoria.

• He died of his injuries on September 12, 1977.

• Vorster’s Minister of Justice, Jimmy Kruger, said of Biko’s death, “I am not glad and I am not sorry about Mr. Biko. His death leaves me cold.”

• None of the policemen involved in his death were found guilty in 1977.

• Kruger was dismissed for damaging South Africa's international reputation.

• In 1978, Biko’s columns for the SASO newsletter were published in a book called "I write what I like".

• Even after his death, Biko remains an icon of the anti-apartheid struggle and was elected honorary life president of the BPC.

Black Consciousness Movement: Key Organizations and Figures

• Key Organizations:

  • Black People's Convention (BPC)

  • South African Students Organisation (SASO)

  • Black Community Programmes (BCP)

  • South African Students Movement (SASM)

  • South African Black Allied Workers Union (BAWU)

  • Union of Black Journalists (UBJ)

  • Black Parents Association (BPA)

• Key Figures associated with these organizations were Steve Biko, Mosibudi Mangena, Winnie Kgware, Mthuli Shezi, Saths Cooper, Onkgopotse Tiro, Aubrey Mokoena, Drake Koka, Strini Moodley, Aubrey Mokoape, Barney Pityana, Mamphela Ramphele, Mosiuoa Lekota, Tsietsi Mashinini, Tebello Motapanyane, Seth Mazibuko, Khehla Mthembu, Murphy Morobe, Tokyo Sexwale, Dumisani Kumalo, Charles Nqakula, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela.

Development and Expansion of the Movement

• The Black Consciousness Movement initially took root in South African universities.

• In 1972, a widespread student strike occurred at black universities after SASO member Onkgopotse Tiro was expelled for a political speech.

• In 1972, SASO played a key role in establishing the Black Community Programmes (BCP), which ran medical and educational centers outside the public sector.

• The anti-apartheid Christian Institute of South Africa (CISA) led by Beyers Naudé, supported the BCP.

• In 1972, SASO formed a connection with the South African Students Movement (SASM), established by black school students in Soweto.

• By 1972, Tiro was at the time SASO’s permanent organizer, was also a History teacher in Soweto, facilitating the connection between SASO and SASM.

• The Black Consciousness movement was aware of the potential power of trade unions but did not gain as much support among workers as it did among students in the 1970s.

• Mamphela Ramphele pointed out that the development goals of the Black Consciousness Movement through the BCP were articulated as the practical manifestation of the Black Consciousness philosophy, which not only called for critical awareness of social relations amongst the oppressed, but for the need to translate that awareness into active programmes for liberation from white domination.

• People who had known nothing but scorn and humiliation needed symbols of hope to lift them out of despair and empower them to liberate themselves.

• At the end of 1972, the Black People’s Convention (BPC) was formed as an umbrella body to include SASO members leaving university and to link various groups countrywide.

• Biko took on the position of field worker within the BPC.

• SASO, the BCP, BAWU, and SASM affiliated with the BPC, joined by other like-minded organizations.

• Organizations like the Union of Black Journalists (UBJ), established by Drum journalist Dumisani Khumalo, emerged from the BPC's membership.

• The Black Consciousness Movement secretly established communication with the ANC leadership in exile.

• Initially cautious of Black Consciousness due to its non-racial inclusivity, the ANC recognized their shared goal of a democratic South Africa.

• After Biko was banned in 1973, King William’s Town became the movement’s center.

• Mamphela Ramphele, a medical doctor, was a key figure in the BCP.

• Biko and Ramphele helped members develop leadership skills and workshops, referred to as ‘formation schools’.

• In 1975, Ramphele established the Zanempilo Community Health Clinic near King William’s Town, often used for Black Consciousness leadership workshops.

• In 1977, Ramphele was banned and forced to move to the Northern Transvaal, where she established the Isutheng Community Health Program.

The Challenge Black Consciousness Posed to the Government

• The Black Consciousness Movement was initially viewed by the apartheid regime as a positive step due to its emphasis on blacks-only organizations.

• However, after the government realized its rejection of the ‘homelands’ policy and the apartheid system, the movement was viewed as a threat.

• The government realized that Black Consciousness organizations were building the foundations of a left-wing revolutionary movement.

• Harsh actions were taken to suppress the movement.

• Tiro was murdered by BOSS in 1974 via parcel bomb in Botswana.

• Biko was murdered by police while in detention in 1977.

• The regime also tried to squash the movement through banning publications, expelling members from universities, and arresting leaders.

• In the mid-1970s, the movement expanded despite government repression and influenced students who led the Soweto Uprising in 1976.

• In 1977, the government banned 18 Black Consciousness organizations, including CISA, and The World newspaper.

Steve Biko Speaks on the Black Consciousness Movement

• Biko calls for a completely non-racial society.

• He rejects guarantees for minority rights.

• A non-racial egalitarian society should not be based on race, people will have the same status and political rights before the law.

• It is the duty of the vanguard political movement to bring about change to educate people’s outlooks.

The Soweto Uprising 1976

• Bantu Education provided black school children with rudimentary and inferior education using limited facilities and poorly trained teachers.

• This education system prepared black South Africans for servitude and unskilled labor.

• It provided enough education to be useful to the apartheid system, but not to challenge the regime.

• SASM emerged in Soweto in 1971 among pupils seeking representation in black schools, tracing its roots back to 1968

• SASO and the BPC made contact with SASM, introducing Black Consciousness ideas to its leadership and treating SASM as part of the Black Consciousness network.

• SASO and the BPC held workshops for school students that encouraged critical thinking and political knowledge.

• SASM also spread the ideas of Black Consciousness through the Soweto high schools by holding discussions and publishing a newspaper called Thrust.

• Tiro taught at Soweto's Morris Isaacson High School during 1972, offering an important connection between the Black Consciousness Movement and SASM.

• Tokyo Sexwale matriculated in 1972 and by 1974 started to establish ANC cells within SASM.

Afrikaans as a Medium of Instruction

• In 1975 the government announced Afrikaans as the medium of instruction for three academic subjects (Mathematics, Geography and History) in Black schools.

• Teachers were not equipped for this, and many black people viewed Afrikaans as the ‘language of the oppressor’.

• When objections were ignored, teachers were suspended or fired for non-compliance.

• In response, some students in Soweto boycotted classes.

• As support for the student boycotts grew, student leaders were arrested, imprisoned, and banned.

• At the SASM conference in May 1976, Mokoena of the BPC gave a lecture on Black Consciousness, and the issue of instruction in Afrikaans.

• In June 1976, SASM formed an action committee to organize a peaceful protest by school students against the issue of Afrikaans as the language of instruction.

• The march, which took place on 16 June 1976, was also fueled by students’ frustrations over the lack of proper education, the lack of services, poverty, police brutality and general government repression and became known as the Soweto Uprising.

• The brutal police response to the peaceful protest resulted in at least 176 deaths.

• Pictures of the violence committed against children were published by The World newspaper, and this was followed by a wave of violent protest countrywide.

• During the chaos on June 16, 1976, 12-year-old Hector Peterson was shot by the police.

• Biko was impressed by the action taken by the Soweto students and viewed them as being influenced by Black Consciousness.

• The students in the Soweto Uprising were influenced by Black Consciousness and Black Power, and some were also influenced by the ANC and the PAC.

• However, the uprising was first and foremost a student-led protest organised by SASM.

• The state banned 18 Black Consciousness organisations after the Soweto Uprising, including SASM.

• The police detained many student leaders.

• The state backed down on the language issue, and teachers were not obliged to use Afrikaans as a language of instruction in 1977.

• However, the unrest continued and spread to many other parts of South Africa.

• It involved workers as well as school students, and by the time it was crushed by the state in 1977, more than 1000 protesters had been killed.

The Legacy of the Black Consciousness Movement

• After the Soweto Uprising, thousands of school students left South Africa to join MK and APLA, giving new impetus to the struggle against apartheid.

• The international media's coverage of the uprising was very influential and turning people against apartheid.

• Economic sanctions followed, forcing local businessmen to put pressure on the government to reform in order to save South Africa's economy.

• In 1978 the Azanian People’s Organisation (AZAPO) was formed out of the BPC.

• It has remained a Black Consciousness organisation and is now a political party in South Africa.

• In 1979 the Azanian Students’ Organisation (AZASO) was established to represent black university students as a successor to SASO, but it soon embraced non-racialism.

• Also in 1979, the Congress of South African Students (COSAS) was established to represent high-school students as a successor to SASM, but it also quickly became non-racial.

• Black Consciousness trade unionists established the Council of Unions of South Africa (CUSA) in 1980, which then established the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) in 1982.

• Many of the leaders of the Black Consciousness organisations from the 1970s went on to play important roles in South African politics.